President Trump's approval rating has fallen to a year-long low, with a strong majority of Americans blaming him for the record-long partial government shutdown, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Thirty-four percent of Americans approve of Trump's job performance, down from 42 percent one month earlier. That level is now near the lowest of Trump's presidency. Trump's approval among Republicans remains near 80 percent, but among independents it's near a two-year low. A majority of the survey's respondents reject Trump's rationale for building a wall on the Mexican border. Trump says he will not accept any deal to reopen the government if it doesn't include $5.7 billion to pay for the wall.

The poll was conducted Jan. 16 to 20 using a sample of 1,062 adults who were interviewed by phone. The margin of error is 4.1 percentage points. Read more at The Associated Press. —Harold Maass

...because he ignored that and cherry-picked one factoid about his popularity being up among Hispanics. Huge +/- on that one, but he doesn't care. He's all about himself, all about ego, totally... more